and
Do not underestimate the intensity of the ego's drive
for vengeance on the past.
T. 16. VII.3:1
According to the Advaita Vedanta Philosophy of Hinduism, Zen, and the Course, this is a phenomenal world – a dream world. It is "Maya" or illusion. The world is not "bad," and therefore, to be condemned. It is not "good" and to be praised. It is what we make of it. Lesson 268 from the workbook of the Course says, “Let all things be exactly as they are.” Zen says, "Be in the world but don't be of the world." Don’t be caught in the world. There is no need to renounce the world – we need only see it as it is and let it be what it is.
Many have chosen to renounce the world
while still believing it’s reality.
And they have suffered from a sense of loss,
and have not been released accordingly.
Others have chosen nothing but the world,
and they have suffered from a sense of loss still deeper,
which they did not understand.
Between these paths there is another road
that leads away from loss of every kind,
for sacrifice and deprivation
both are quickly left behind.
This is the way
appointed for you now.
W.155. 4:2-4 &
5:1-2
Buddha's great enlightenment was that all of life is desiring or attachment. The ego's attachments to the "things" of the world keep us in illusion.
Words and the World
I had a near death experience in 1976, and afterwards I could not talk for over two hours because I realized that anything I said would be a “construct,” that is, an attempt to try to put into words the description of an experience which did not fit into words. Bodhidharma, the legendary founder of Zen says, "Devise no words." They call this state in China "mo chao." "Mo" means serene or silent and chao means reflection or awareness. It means a mirror-like quality – just reflect. Be receptive rather than projective. In the same way, The Course asks us not to judge the world. The line I probably quote most often from the Course is:
Let him be what he is and seek not to make of love an enemy.
T-19. IV (D) 13:8
Zen says observe without comment, criticism or commentary; observe without judgment. The Course says, words are but symbols of symbols and thus twice removed from reality. (M-21 1:9-10). The word starts the world. The moment we enter the world of words, the world begins. So it is that an infant lives in the void until they begin to develop words, labels, identities, especially the identity of “me” and “mine.” Everyone is born a mystic, then we draw the child toward the school and the church and the mystical fades away in face of the material – the social – the personality — the world.
We begin with a construct. We begin to concretize. We begin to build a castle – an ego and a system of belief. With time, it gets more and more solidified. A study of the evolution of castles during the medieval period and beyond shows how they became more and more defensive. And so it is in the development of an ego structure. The more concrete, the more unyielding; the stronger, the more isolated; the more cut off from the whole of life; the more desperate the situation becomes.
To know God is to live in God – to know one’s reality as part of God. God is not something about which we can theologize. God is not "extrinsic" to us. God is "intrinsic." God is not in the someday future. God is right here, right now – in my immediate experience. The more awake I am, the more I know God – not in an egoistic way— that would be impossible. Rather, God is known in a deeply loving experience of Life Itself.
It's Not About Theology
A Christian philosopher attending a conference on World Religions in Tokyo said to a Shinto master, "I don't think I get your ideology. I don't understand your theology?" The Shinto master looked at him for a moment and then said, "We don’t have a theology. We do not have an ideology. We dance."
A universal theology is impossible.
But, a universal experience is not only possible but necessary.
C- In. 2:5
Zen is not a theology. Zen is a pure, absolute, inculpable religion. Theology contaminates and pollutes. Theology is something about which we may have "debates." People have been arguing for centuries because of "dogmas," ideologies, geocentricism, egocentricism, nationalism – "anyism" will do. Anyism is an illusion. Only, knowledge of the pure heart of God brings us to the truth.
Zen says, the mind is in the past. In the same way, Lesson 7 from the Workbook of the Course says, I see only the past. Guilt keeps us in the past. Zen is realistic, pragmatic, and down-to-earth. Zen masters believe in immediacy and they don't have explanations.
A Zen master lay dying. His monks gathered around his deathbed. A senior monk asks the master for any final words for his monks. The old master says softly, "Tell them Truth is like a river." The senior monk relays this message to the other monks. The youngest monk in the group asks, "What does he mean that Truth is like a river?" The senior monk relays this question to the master, and the master replies, "Okay, Truth is not like a river."
There is no answer; only an experience.
Seek only this, and do not let theology delay you.
ACIM.C- In 4:4-5
Zen and theory don’t exist together. Zen is like love. Try to define it. You’ll lose it. You can be in spirit or you can be in ego. Both are not possible together. A house divided against itself cannot stand. A mystic has no theology. A mystic has experience, truth, and luminosity. Truth is not about doctrines. Nothing that is true need be explained (T-7.I.6:4). Mystics do not have creeds, doctrines, and cannons of belief. There is no required way of believing. Zen is an experience. The Course is an experience of “miracle-mindedness.” The Course is not about doctrine and dogma and neither is Zen. In Zen there is no church, no priest, and no pope. There is no hierarchy in the Course, no church, no priest, no pope. There is no central organization which tells us what to believe — there is only the Course itself. The moment you have a hierarchy, a ladder up which one may ascend, a pecking order and a chain-of-command, egos get involved. Zen is the only religion which has not become a tradition like Christianity, and Judaism. The Course will not become a tradition either.
Like Zen the Course is a way of seeing.
Like Zen the Course is a way of being.
Being is a state in which the mind is in communication with everything that is real. It is presence, attentiveness, awareness.
There shall soon be no more priests. Their work is done. . .
Everyman shall be his own priest.
American Poet, Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Specialness and Zen
No one is special. No one is to be elevated over another; no one is to be placed on a pedestal. No one is to be looked down or regarded as somehow less. Jesus is our elder brother. There is no difference between Jesus and us, except in time; and seeing how there is no time, there is no difference. We are all equal brothers and sisters. What Jesus has seen, we might see. What Jesus has done we might do. If everything is divine, how can anything be special? Every delicate moment is precious.
The Course like Zen teaches totality in the moment. They both teach immediacy, immersion, involvement, moment-to-moment, in the moment, there is no past where guilt abides, no future where fear rules. There is no hell. God is. Love is. Life is. Being is. Nothing more is needed. There is not an opposite to God. Whatever appears as opposite to God contains no eternity – no reality. What is fleeting and passing is not everlasting. Time is a vast illusion. Only this moment IS.
Heaven is here.
There is no place else.
Heaven is now.
There is no other time.
M-24 6:4
Salvation is immediately available. There is no need to wait for even an instant. Jesus, in the gospel says, “Heaven is ‘at hand.’" It is as immediate as my hand. It is that available. As there is no time, there just is what is. Living fully in the moment, I have no time for time.
For time and space are one illusion,
which takes different forms.
If it has been projected beyond your mind you think of it as time.
The nearer it is brought to where it is,
the more you think of it in terms of space.
ACIM T-26.VIII.1:3-5
Ideologies are tainted glasses that obstruct vision and nothing is so blinding as the perception of form (T-22.III.6:7). Zen and the Course bring sanity to the mind by "undoing" the world through forgiveness. Let things be what they are. Look at the world without adding anything to it. Look without prejudice, no presuppositions, no assumption, no suppositions - no judgment. The moment we have judgment, we have separation – we have division – we have duality – we have a problem. Sit still and witness without commentary. See it. Be it.
Zen says don't dissect, don't analyze. The Course says, "The ego analyzes; the Holy Spirit accepts." (T-11.V.13:1) To analyze is to separate, to break down, and to tear apart. Zen and the Course say – accepting the situation (the world) brings peace. God cannot be dissected. God is Oneness. God is unity.
The Path of Paradox
The Course asks: would you be hostage to the ego or host to God? (T-15.III.5:1) Medieval mystic, Meister Eckhart (1260-1326, Germany) said, “All my life I sought for God and when I found Him, I found it was God who was seeking me.” If you would love, do not possess and love will be given you. Try to possess Love, and you may find it being taken from you. The Course says, "What I give my brother is my gift to me." God is yours. Zen says – relax. Don't seek, don't search, and don’t demand. If you relax, it comes. It cannot come through arrogance. It never comes by making anyone or anything wrong.
It’s a winter evening. I’m sitting with my wife, Dolores and our daughter, Sarah in our family room. We're all reading. The fireplace is ablaze. It feels very comfy, very much like home – because it is home. I stop reading and allow. Here we are doing this essential, family thing. The moment is sufficient unto itself. Nothing is needed. The moment is perfect. This moment as I write these words – right now as you read these words, this moment is perfect – and this morning when I was in a minor fender bender – that was perfect too. No one made anyone wrong and I made a new friend.
Laughter, Zen, and the Course
Laugh at your fears
and replace them with peace.
For fear lies not in reality,
but in the minds of children
who do not understand reality.
T-11.VIII.14:3-4
The ego is silly. It does crazy tricks. From the right perspective, above the battlefield, I can watch the foolish games we play and kindly laugh.
In gentle laughter does the Holy Spirit perceive
the cause,
and
looks not to effects.
T-27, VIII, 9:1
If you ever listen to the Dalai Lama talk, you may notice that he laughs a lot. It is easy to laugh when you are free. The Course says, It is a 'joke' to think that time can come to circumvent eternity which means there is no time. (T-27. VIII.6:5). From a higher perspective, we can laugh at the non-reality of some illusion pretending that it is real. Laughter is the spark of the soul. The freer we are, the more we can laugh. One clear sign of an awakened being is that they laugh a lot.
When I was a kid on the farm in Missouri, we had a bull that I could lead around with a rope. On one end of the rope, there was a metal device with a spring on it that clasped around the soft, inner part of the bull’s nose. If the bull refused to follow me and pulled back on the rope, the metal clasp would tighten on the inner part of his nose. Stepping forward relieved the pressure. This huge, several hundred pound animal would, thus, follow me wherever I wanted. It's the same when we allow the silly ego to lead us around by our noses. We follow the laws of the ego thinking they are all so important, all the while feeling that something is missing.
The Ego is Hell. There is No Hell
As there is no ego, there is no hell. According to both Zen and the Course, there is no separated self, no ego. There is no hell, and no devil, and therefore, nothing to be afraid of. There cannot be an opposite to God and Love. The emphasis of the ego is on doing. The emphasis of spirit is on being.
According to Zen, when an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man. Think about it.
Zen is just Being.
The Course is just Being.
Zen and the Course are both "undoing,"
Unlearning — doing nothing.
Go, do nothing! Have fun.
Peace,
